The Berlin-based startup WAY has successfully raised €1.2 million in pre-seed funding.
About the company
Founded early in 2023 by Jonas Baum and Cedric Bals, WAY emerged from a need identified by Bals during his time as an IT working student. He observed the struggles of SMEs with their IT setups. This experience, combined with similar challenges at startups and scale-ups, inspired the creation of WAY. The company aims to solve pervasive IT issues. Baum and Bals are seasoned entrepreneurs with a history of founding both VC-funded and bootstrapped ventures.
Investors involved
The round saw leadership from the Belgian venture capital fund Pitchdrive. It was supported by IBB Ventures, FvS Investments, and HR VC allygatr. Moreover, a group of notable SaaS angel investors joined. This includes David Padilla from Kenjo, Comatch’s Jan Schächtele and Christoph Hardt, Joblift’s Denis Bauer, and Helge Plehn from Circus Kitchen.
The platform’s promise
WAY plans to use the funds to enhance its innovative IT platform. This platform simplifies the procurement of tech equipment. It also automates tasks like device setup, inventory management, and offboarding logistics. Their service, integrating major HR tools, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, allows equipping new employees in under a minute.
A solution for all
Jonas Baum shared, “Even tech-savvy SMEs often professionalize their IT too late.” He highlighted the affordability and large-company design of existing solutions as barriers. WAY’s service, with its free and premium options, caters to businesses of all sizes. It aims to eliminate “the infamous IT pain” for everyone. Their AI tool promises easy integration of IT inventory, marking an end to the tedious spreadsheet uploads.
WAY not only supports SMEs but also offers solutions for larger organizations with existing device fleets. This demonstrates the startup’s commitment to broadening IT access and efficiency across the business spectrum.
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